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Summary: Burn the libraries; their worth is in this book.
Review: As Omar said of the Koran, I say of Walden. This is the single greatest book I've ever read, hands down. Words really can't describe how amazing it is, though I doubt that it will affect many people the same way it has me. That said, this edition (the Konemann) is one of the best I've seen. The book itself is helpfully supplied with footnotes (which are something of a necessity for a born quoter like Thoreau), unobtrusively marked by a leaf in the margins of the pages, which refer you to the notes in the back: this is an excellent way to supply these notes without interrupting the flow of the text. There are no elaborate essays on the meaning of Walden, however, so the reader is left to judge the book on its own terms. The book itself is svelte and compact; a perfect backpack-sized vade mecum. This book, with shipping, is less than 10 dollars. It was one of the best purchases I've ever made.
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Summary: A book of true personal value.
Review: Walden is really an exposition of Thoreau's way of viewing life. Thoreau says there is more to life than posessions and money, that, as difficult as it is to accumulate posessions and to earn wealth, it is much much more difficult to rid one's self of them! A statement/concept that is worthy of contemplation. Walden will take you away in to your own "walden", if that is where you would like to be, and, if so, then you, as I, will enjoy the book very much. I rated it as a four star (out of five), only, because I could not choose 4.5 stars. On my personal scale, in order to receive a 5 star rating, a book has to move me with the intensity of a paradigm shift. It has to offer up concepts that, following a thorough consideration, change my present view of life, world. etc.... Thoreau's Walden comes close on this measure, but falls just a little short. His On civil disobedience, is another work that I reccomend with high regard, slightly more so, even. than Walden.
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Summary: Incredible!
Review: I had not read this growing up but wish I had. This is such a wonderful book. There are not many pictures in here - just a hand drawn map in one part of the book. Its excerpts from Thoreau's journal over the two year period when he lived on Walden's pond. He did not live like a recluse (he went in to Concord almost every day) so its not a book about living alone per se. Its more about reflecting on life, considering why one "is" and recognizing the beauty and mystery of nature around us every day, everywhere. Thoreau talks of regular daily things too like what it costs him to farm, or having cider, or building a chimney. The writing style is conversational, open, honest. He doesn't try to get tricky with words, he just tells it like he sees it. It's so beautiful. For anyone (like me) who indeed sees nature as their "religion" or sees the Great Spirit in every leaf, tree and bug, this book will be adored. So many wonderful messages, thoughts, woven throughout this book. Its an incredible work.
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Summary: For all idealists
Review: This timeless classic from one of the great thinkers of the 19th century American transcedentalist school appeals to all idealists. This would include idealists from both the left and the right. Envronmentalists are attracted by the themes of living in harmony with nature. For example, Thoreau observes all around him in his two year two month stay in his simple house in the woods. He describes in great detail watching certain insects glide along the pond and the ripples made when they do so. He provides an engrossing description of two ant colonies, one black, the other red, at war with each other and gives a lurid, blow by blow account of the battle. Envrionmentalist also will be drawn toward his declarations against waste and using more than is necassary. Leftists from an earlier generation, "hippies" for want of a better characterization, are drawn towards Thoreau's rejection of the material. At Walden Pond, Thoreau eschewed unnecessary comforts and lived for what may be more truly important; a life in which we get to know the world around us. He was able to sit for hours, but this was not a waste of time because he was thinking and observing. He sought higher values. Idealists from the right are also attracted by Thoreau's observations since he was self reliant and lived off of his own labors without thinking that anyone else owed him a living. He may have rejected the material but, in so doing, he fended for himself and lived off of his hard work and ingenuity. Unfortunately, there are many today who cannot possibly appreciate this great book because they are more concerned with materialism, an easy life and pop culture. I hope that these young people will ultimately experience what Thoreau early in the first chapter calls the greatest miracle: "to look through each other's eyes for an instant." I hope that these young readers will look through this great thinker's eyes and truly try to understand what he has seen and experienced.
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Summary: Just a man trying to shift for himself.
Review: Thoreau went into the Concord woods "to live deliberately" and to try to approach in practice his excellent motto--multum in parvo--much in little. Setting off to transact some business as simply as possible, Thoreau began his famous experiment a happy man. Importantly, he concluded it 26 months later in the same convivial state. After proving to himself it could be done, he saw no point in continuing his experiment in such extreme fashion, becoming once again "a sojourner in civilized life." Thoreau was certainly not alone in the woods. Apart from the many visitors he welcomed, he took frequent trips "into town," or met woodchoppers and ice cutters during his marathon sojourns through the fields and forests surrounding his wooden castle. While most men, as he famously said, "led lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau seemed to soak up the life and energy of every waking hour, giving him an inexhaustible supply of earthly happiness. There was nothing quiet or desperate about Thoreau. Classically-educated Thoreau was patently devoted to the writings of ancient authors, but to him the words and pages written by Nature were far more interesting and pleasing than histories in Latin or 2500 year-old Greek sagacity. In fact, Thoreau read very little during a good portion of his Walden experiment. He preferred sometimes just to sit on his doorstep from morning to noon, steeped in the sights and sounds of the abundant nature surrounding him. Of course he also wrote. But the Walden we read today is not simply a collection of his raw, day-to-day diary reflections. In fact, it wasnft until a few years later that he expanded and painstakingly polished the rough journal entries he made during his stay in the woods. Whatever the case, the writing in Walden is brilliant throughout. Foremost, Thoreau was a writerca profoundly masterful one at that. People read his Walden for a variety of reasons. I read it because it speaks with an immortal voice...and every word, phrase and sentence resounds with transcendent clarity. This simple little book is so full of hope, wisdom and inspiration that one can read it a thousand times and each time discover a new kernel of brilliance or vision. During his lifetime, traditional success would never be his. But you would have had to argue with him over the definition of success. "The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind," the author so wisely said. It is precisely because of such profundity that his "success" is guaranteed for as long as people still read good books. "Follow your genius closely enough and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour." --H.D.T.
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Summary: I have travelled a good deal in Concord
Review: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Thoreau spent 26 months hermitage at Walden Pond to face what is essential and shed the rest. Starting with Economy then on to Where I lived and What For and Reading, Sounds, Solitude, Visitors, the Pond, Baker Farm, Higher Laws, Brute Neighbors, House Warming, and on through to Spring. Sounds is one of my favorite chapters. He tells of the sounds he can hear as he sits silently listening. He sets his furniture out of doors and watches the sun beam down. He hears the railroad whistle in the distance and the distant rumbling of wagons over bridges or hoot owls at night with bullfrogs too, a plethora of sound!
Superb writing and the benefit of one perceptive man's 26 months of reflection, hermitage, and life at Walden Pond.
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Summary: A Towering Work of American Literature
Review: I guess I'm not surprised, scrolling through the many reviews of this book, to see that quite a few find it to be a tedious waste of time. This is, after all, America, where thinking critically is in critically short supply. If you are a literalist, if you've been weaned on airport novels and other pseudo-literary junk, if you are unable to relate to a multi-faceted jewel that sparkles on every imaginable level, then by all means stay away from this book. The tone of several reviews reminded me of the student in my Latin class who said one day, as we were reading a selection from Ovid's Metamorphoses, "This is stupid!" "No," I responded tranquilly, "You're stupid." Some people apparently expect an encounter with a great author to be a cheap turn on, like a video game or a shot of Jack Daniels. Not surprisingly, when the engagement requires the use of one's brain or at least a modicum of intellectual effort, many have to throw in the towel. The irony, of course, is that these are exactly the sort of people Thoreau was railing against in Walden. Walden, boring? You might as well say the Iliad, Hamlet, or the Canterbury Tales are boring. Walden is quite easily a work that ranks with these world-class masterpieces. Thoreau's magnum opus grows in stature with each passing year, and he ranks at the top of American prose stylists. Walden is a heroic epic, a farmer's almanac, a poem, a pastoral, a fire and brimstone sermon, an autobiography, a philosophical treatise, a journal, an annual report by a man who was the sole stockholder in his own extraordinary enterprise. It is a vicious critique of the unexamined life and a brilliant paean to the richer and more rewarding existence which is open to anyone who wishes to discover it. Like a stone tossed into a pond, Walden's influence will ripple through all of the ages to the very edge of eternity. If there ever was a book that could dramatically alter one's perception of the world, Walden is that book.
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Summary: A Life's Guide Not A Survival Guide
Review: Many people have the misconception that "Walden" is all about how to survive in the wilderness, this completely misses the soul of the book. Thoreau didn't do his "experiment" to see if he could survive in the wilderness, he would have gone much farther from civilization for that. Rather, Thoreau wanted to live life on his own terms in a setting that allowed him to contemplate life on a higher scale then simply "getting a living". As he states his life philosophy "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" ask yourself what it is that you NEED to make you happy, and live only for that.
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Summary: Everything beautiful...
Review: There are few words that can express the love and wonderment I feel while reading this account of one man's 2 year journey into the woods, and into the 'self'. It is a journey I long trek... I will NEVER be the same again, nor will I ever look apon the natural world without being reminded of something he thought or discovered. I walk away having discovered something profound with in myself.
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Summary: Book as souvenir
Review: On Easter of 2000 I visited Concord, Massachusetts, and purchased this volume in a gift shop just across Rt. 62 from the site of Henry's cabin. It had been raining the entire trip, but armed with my coat of many pockets, my backpack, and my umbrella, I entered and "sauntered" about the gift shop, glad to get out of the cold dampness if only for a moment. I picked up a couple of the customary t-shirts one needs as souvenirs when traveling and then found myself in the book section, drawn to the items which enthrall me wherever I go. One book stood out-not because I needed it, for I had a copy at home that was given to me by a friend for my birthday one year, but because of the photo on the cover. Whoever had designed the cover had actually BEEN to Walden, and the proof was the wet leaf among the terra firma known as the Pond. With an accompanying introduction by Joyce Carol Oates, I couldn't refuse. The cover still touches me, but I have taken to reading books and giving them away afterward, a habit that I am almost sure that Henry would love. I instead remember Walden in other ways, as rain falling on cedars. Walden to me is always Easter, always Earth Day, always truth, and most of all, always a reminder that my life is not mean or poor but rich and ready for picking. The chapters relying on Spring, Economy, Reading, and most of all the swelling Conclusion, like a gentle coda after the soaring symphony, remind me of what still waits, regardless of how old I am, and how old I will get.
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